Forgetting the Miraculous

It is far too easy for us to become accustomed to the miraculous. And when we become accustomed to it, we forget that God is behind it.

Do you wonder at how your body works? Yes, I know it may be easier to focus on what doesn’t work, especially as we get older. But the real wonder is that the vast majority of the time, the vast majority of our bodies work flawlessly. We begin as two cells become one, we grow, we learn, we heal injuries, fight off diseases, consume everything from wheat to apples to cows and get the raw materials we need. With all our technology, we haven’t come close.

In the Gospel lesson for Sunday (Mark 4:26-34; click here to read it) Jesus points to the example of the world around us. A farmer plants a seed, goes to bed, gets up and, behold, it is growing and eventually produces the full head of grain and the farmer knows not how. He can only rejoice.

Whether we are watching a cut heal on the skin or a grain of wheat turn into a full head of wheat, we wonder at what God has designed. To be sure, we have learned a lot more about the processes involved and we can now describe cell division, DNA, chemical processes, etc., but none of that enables us to produce the process! We can only observe it, we cannot create it.

I remind myself of this truth regularly. Take the time to wonder at God’s creation! When we lose the wonder at the miraculous, not only does life become mundane, but we forget our need for God and His closeness to us!